Online Retail Sales: Online Loyalty Equals Retail Gold
by: Joseph Pratt
As an employee of an online advertising agency, ICMediaDirect.com, I?ve got a sweet vantage for observing the latest online retail numbers tumble in - and they?re spectacular.
Third Quarter online retail sales were up almost 27% from the same period last year, while these first 20 days of January were up 33% from the same period in 2005.
This surge is neither cyclical nor an aberration, but indicative of the continuing and permanent shift of retail consumers to ecommerce instead.
Naturally this is great news for online advertisers and retailers.
But it?s important to remember that ecommerce has outgrown its infancy.
The big players in online retail have established themselves and seem to know what they?re doing.
It is important for advertising agencies and marketers to understand the current success and mindset of online retailing.
Keen insight will be critical in recognizing and pitching opportunity to advertisers in the upcoming year.
Okay, retailers know better than anyone how much money consumers are spending over the Internet.
They are realizing profits in their respective fields.
They also recognize a maturation process and that the net number of new e-commerce customers will tail off to non-growth levels.
Some estimates predict this flat lining by 2010.
However, there is still important growth with maturity ? and that growth is in the average amount of money spent per online customer.
Instead of trying to grab new customers, retailers are bending over backwards to retain existing customers.
This is the value play.
Existing customers are being cultivated.
The retailer, be it Nordstrom?s or Wal-Mart, wants the customer feeling at home and free of anxiety within their website.
Instead of trying to be all things to all people online, online retailing efforts of late are geared towards complementing their ?brick and mortar? locations.
By complement, I mean soaking up as much nitty-gritty merchandising as possible ? and letting store locations double as entertainment or advertising hubs.
In order to do this, though, the website must be a comfortable zone for shoppers.
Target is a fine example of a company whose mission is to build customer loyalty on and offline.
Their online site regularly offers ?insider? savings not mentioned in print.
I only know because their website announces this.
The design here is to build warm online association with the customer and the brand?s website.
There is an overarching value being placed on the online customer today because online loyalty equals retail gold.
Profit margins of today remain important as ever, but a future where today?s loyalty means increased spending tomorrow is truly precious.
This bedrock is being built today.
Amazon.com had a huge holiday season - they cited particularly strong sales in jewelry and cosmetics.
Jewelry is going through a surge of online sales growth, up 29% over last year.
This is another example of a fundamental shift; this is jewelry ? not a fad, but a reflection of consumer trust in the Internet.
Moreover, of the top 50 online advertisers measured in media value (according to TNS Media Intelligence) none are expressly jewelers.
Does this spell opportunity for an online jeweler?
Undoubtedly.
And we?ll see huge online advertising efforts here in upcoming years, if not months.
Also of note: 15 of the top 50 online advertisers, in terms of media space purchased, are financial companies.
Another dozen retail nothing.
And there?s only one travel company, Expedia.com, in that top 50.
This is pretty interesting because travel is the largest sector of retail business done online.
Of course, most advertising money is going into paid search advertising.
However, the grumbling is growing amongst advertisers within the PPC world.
With such developments like Google?s Variable Term-Pricing (or, the death of free-market PPC on Google) and big business customers (like eBay) flooding the format, PPC has become a much more expensive proposition.
Advertisers will be looking once again at the more traditional online advertising means.
We will be ready.
And what will prospective advertisers see when venturing off the paid search path?
They?ll see Classmates.com and the University of Phoenix among the very top spenders in pop-ups and banners.
Well, I?ve got news ? these companies, whose advertising means can?t compete with the bigger retailers, haven?t been throwing their money away.
It works.
And this, folks, is an advertising void; call it an arbitrage play within advertising.
E-retail is going through the roof and the advertising dollars haven?t been following suit into all the effective media channels.
Retailers are going to merge their online advertising formats.
Some ads here, some ads there - all bases must be covered.
When online customer spending is up 27%, advertisers shouldn?t concentrate all efforts into a single format.
I can?t speak for other agencies, but ICMediaDirect.com is feeling an up tick in the traditional formats of online advertising.
Online retailing has evolved.
The Internet has gone from a cheap place of doing business to a venue where a premium is placed on customers. A seller has to do more than offer an agreeable selection.
Their job is to create a comfortable and trusting interactive space, and in doing so, they?ll need to sell themselves through advertising online.
About The Author
Joseph Pratt
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World Of Warcraft, Could It Be Killing Our Teens
World Of Warcraft, Could It Be Killing Our Teens
by: Mark MacKay
The parents of a teenage son who committed suicide just over a year ago claim that their son become addicted to the massively multiplayer online role-playing game, World of Warcraft. They believe that as a result of this addiction he took his own life. Now these parents are suing World of WarCraft developers Blizzard Entertainment, blaming the game developers for the tragic loss of their son.
The details of just how many hours this teen had been playing World of Warcraft prior to his death has not yet been published. Just what would constitute an addiction is hard to quantify. The generally accepted medical definition of an addiction is; a habitual psychological and physiological dependence on a substance or practice beyond one's voluntary control. So using this definition as a guide we could assume he had no control over how often he sat down to play the online role playing game.
Looking...
World Of Warcraft, Could It Be Killing Our Teens
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Hemoglobin Around The Globe
Hemoglobin Around The Globe
by: Tyler Brooker
Commonly abbreviated as Hb, Hemoglobin, or Heamoglobin, is the iron containing oxygen in our red blood cells which transport metalloproteins. All mammals on earth have hemoglobin, as it is a necessary function in the blood. It contains globin, apoprotien, and four heme groups (organic molecules with one atom of iron attached to each).The gene for the hemoglobin protien can sometimes mutate. This occurence results in one or more of many diseases, but most commonly turns into Thalassemia or Sickle-cell disease.
Heme groups are located in each sub-unit of a hemoglobin molecule. A heme group consists of a single iron atom, held in a heterocyclic ring, commonly known as a "porphyrin". Oxygen binding takes place in this iron atom. The one iron atom binds itself equally to all four nitrogens in the center of the heterocyclic ring, which lies on one plane. In addition, two bonds perpendicular to the plane...
Hemoglobin Around The Globe
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Give Charming Elegance To Your Home Decorating With The Special Wood Curtain Rods
Give Charming Elegance To Your Home Decorating With The Special Wood Curtain Rods
by: Adam Peters
To provide a complete wildlife touch to your home settings, wood curtain rods are the best decorating items. Not only the rods add to the beauty of the homes but they also hold the curtains in a unique way. It is because of the perfect fittings of the curtains in the wood curtain rods that the curtains flutter softly and gracefully to give a pleasing aura to the rooms.
Technical specialties of wood curtain rods
The wood curtain rods are made of walnut, teakwood, mahogany, oak or other hardwood that make them durable. The rods usually have a tobacco finish and the finials of the rods are available in either small or large sizes. The wood rods are available as either smooth rods or as fluted rods. While the smooth rods are usually of 1-3/8? diameters, the fluted rods are of 2? diameter.
The rods in general are available in three different...
Give Charming Elegance To Your Home Decorating With The Special Wood Curtain Rods
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Motivation: What Life is All About
Motivation: What Life is All About
by: Gene Castelli
Gene Castelli from Columbus, Ohio writes: We think of the word ?motivation? and its derivatives, and a picture comes to mind of the athlete being ?motivated? to win, or the actor finding his ?motivation? for the role he/she is playing, or being spell bound by a great ?motivational? speaker. What we often don't remember is that every single aspect of life is guided by motivation or the lack of (often quickly followed by another term ?failure?).
Motivation is not an overcoat we throw on when we feel we need it, it is a constant every day situation we practice from the most mundane task to the most specific life changing task we could ever imagine. It is quite possibly the most powerful force (other than love) that makes us what we are today. To motivate your children, you need to understand what motivation is.
Staying with the sports theme, we all have seen the movie scene: the coach and...
Motivation: What Life is All About
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Twelve Tips for Greater Enjoyment of your Gold and Silver Jewelry
Twelve Tips for Greater Enjoyment of your Gold and Silver Jewelry
by: Sam Serio
Jewelry can be beautiful to look at, fun to buy, and can make bold and revealing statements about you. Hear are some tips for greater enjoyment of your favorite gold and silver jewelry.
1. Never swim in a chlorinated pool while wearing gold and silver jewelry.
2. Always apply make-up, perfumes, oils or colognes before you put on your gold and silver jewelry
3. Keep both your skin and your gold and silver jewelry clean and free of oil.
4. Using an absorbent, abrasive-free body powder on areas that your gold and silver jewelry touches your skin can help with skin discoloration.
5. If you do have any skin discoloration you may need to move to a higher gold content. Say, from 14K gold jewelry to 18K jewelry.
6. Are your gold and silver chains all tied-up in knots? If so, here?s a nifty little trick for straightening them out. Dust your chain...
Twelve Tips for Greater Enjoyment of your Gold and Silver Jewelry
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Magnificent Kinkakuji
Magnificent Kinkakuji
by: Carl Delfeld
Last week during his tour of Kyoto Japan, President Bush visited the Golden Pavilion (Kinkakuji) and described it as ?magnificent?.
He was probably referring to the 1398 Japanese architecture but may just as well have been referring to gold prices which are at an 18-year high. Gold has been a magnificent investment and still has considerable upside.
It is a rare portfolio that I build for a client that does not have some allocation to gold and other precious metals. There are three basic reasons why investors should still consider adding it to their portfolio.
First, gold prices are not normally correlated to other asset class prices. It therefore serves as a buffer or shock absorber to the value of a portfolio when other assets classes are out of favor.
Secondly, there are supply and demand factors. Central banks have been net sellers of gold over the past twenty years. Gold accounts...
Magnificent Kinkakuji
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More Than Your Average Valentine's Gift
More Than Your Average Valentine's Gift
by: Amanda Trevino
Valentine?s Day is approaching, and you have no idea what to get your special someone.
Sure, you could try chocolates, flowers, or another plush gorilla singing ?Wild Thing,? but for a valentines gift that is fun, personal, and says more than just ?wild thing, you make my heart sing,? consider jewelry.
What could be more exciting on February 14th than taking your special someone to your local jeweler and letting them choose their very own valentines gift?
This would be an exceptionally enjoyable way to bond over Valentine?s Day, but if you?d rather keep your gift a surprise, there are plenty of ideas to create a fun way for your partner to open her gift.
You could take her out for a romantic dinner and have the waiter bring the ring with dessert, or you could lead her on a scavenger hunt through all the places that are significant to you, with the final...
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